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What do hair metal rockers (and insiders) think of the term ‘hair metal’?

Dana Strum, Slaughter: “I think it’s kind of funny, if you look at some of the pictures, and fans blowing on people in videos. Even I admit, at one point it completely got out of control. The video directors at that time would come in and say, ‘We need a fan here, and this here.’ I remember arguing with them: ‘Well, why is that?’”

Chris Babbitt, Taking Dawn: “The record we’re working on right now, our sophomore release, is the definition of our mission statement being, ‘We’re not f*cking hair metal, so suck our dicks.’ … We happen to have long hair, and we jump around like assholes, and some of the new outfits we’re coming with are even more over-the-top, just because the whole point is entertainment. People need to put you in a genre.”

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Laura Herlovich, PR Plus (worked with bands including Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses in the ’80s and ’90s): “To be honest with you, that hair was unbelievably sexy and gorgeous and rebellious and everything you wanted your bad boy of rock to be. I liked the guys with the curly hair. The guys with the straight hair weren’t near as exciting to me as the guys that had these big wild manes of hair.”

Michael Starr, Steel Panther: “I think it’s a really great description of what we do. We have hair, and we’re playing metal.”

Allyson B. Crawford, Bring Back Glam: “I didn’t call my website Bring Back Hair Metal, did I? I guess I like the word glam because it’s short for glamorous, but I don’t think hair metal is derogatory in any way. I think it is what it is. It’s a descriptor. The guys wore spandex and had giant hair. I have the pictures to prove it. There’s no denying it.”

Korie Koker, Count’s Vamp’d: “It’s funny, just because back in the ’80s, everybody had big hair. We all did. I did. It doesn’t mean that much to me. The bands that I know that they want to call hair metal, they’re still good, talented bands.”